Article written by Dr. Michelle Strydom MD
Sometimes renewing your mind is not enough to produce your freedom from disease, because you need a little more help. In other words you need ministry. You need the help of your pastor or another anointed Christian who understands these principles of healing. You need somebody to come along side you who represents God and who uses the gifts of the Holy Spirit to deal with your problems in ministry. The Bible teaches us that the five-fold ministry was given to us by the Lord to equip, train and edify us so that we are able to do what God has called us to do:
Ephesians 4 v 11-12: “And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers. His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church).”
I Corinthians 12 v 7 – 10 identifies the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are available to us in the Church today: “7But to each one is given the manifestation of the [Holy] Spirit [the evidence, the spiritual illumination of the Spirit] for good and profit. 8To one is given in and through the [Holy] Spirit [the power to speak] a message of wisdom, and to another [the power to express] a word of knowledge and understanding according to the same [Holy] Spirit; 9To another [wonder-working] faith by the same [Holy] Spirit, to another the extraordinary powers of healing by the one Spirit; 10To another the working of miracles, to another prophetic insight (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose); to another the ability to discern and distinguish between [the utterances of true] spirits [and false ones], to another various kinds of [unknown] tongues, to another the ability to interpret such tongues.”
We need ministers in the church and we need to minister to one another under the over sight of the five fold ministry. We need people of God who are anointed by Him, who are filled with the Spirit and mature in the knowledge of the Word to help and edify the body of Christ so that we can be brought back to a place of health and wholeness. God intended that we heal each other through the gifts and through the work of the Holy Spirit. In James 5 v 14 it says, “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church.” However, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not just aimed at the church leaders, but are also to be used by the people in the church. The leadership is there to set an example so that all the believers can do the work of the ministry. In other words the leadership and the saints are to be equally equipped. It is very clear in 1 Corinthians 12 that the body is to take care of the body in all matters of health.
Why do we have the gift of miracles? Because some parts of our body do not heal once they are damaged by disease or trauma.
Let’s have a look at two specific gifts of the Holy Spirit – they were mentioned in I Corinthians 12 v 7 – 10 and also in 1 Corinthians 12 v 28: “And God has set some in the church, first apostles, second prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.”
Two of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the gift of healing and the gift of miracles. Why do we have the gift of miracles? Because some parts of our body do not heal once they are damaged by disease or trauma. When you cut your skin with a knife, for example, your body is programmed to naturally heal itself – a scab will form and eventually the cut is replaced with new tissue. Once the spiritual roots (toxic sinful thinking patterns) behind the disease are dealt with, the body will naturally heal itself of diseases like allergies, high blood pressure, depression, stomach ulcers and so on. There are parts of our body that heal normally when the cause (sin in our thought life) is removed. However there is some body tissue that cannot regenerate once it has been damaged. This includes the brain, the heart, nerves and other body organs. When these parts of our body are damaged, we are wasting our time praying for healing or trying to operate in the gift of healing because that body tissue cannot heal. If God is going to heal or regenerate something that cannot be regenerated, then what kind of gift would this take? The gift of miracles. How do we operate in the gift of miracles? First of all you are going to have to deal with the spiritual issues in the person’s life that caused the disease. Then because it is not possible for that body tissue to heal, some believer like you and I that God wants to anoint in the gift of miracles needs to speak things into existence in the Name of Jesus expecting the Holy Spirit to do it. If you don’t believe it then it will never happen through you because Jesus said, “According to your faith, be it done to you.”
Matthew 9 v 29: “According to your faith and trust and reliance [on the power invested in Me] be it done to you.”
Romans 4 v 17 says that God calls things that are not, as though they were, and thus brings them into being. The Amplified Bible says, “God gives life to the dead and speaks of non-existent things that [He foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.” Now the Bible calls us to be imitators of God – when we’re operating in the gift of miracles, we speak a creative miracle into existence and we do it in His Name. I have seen God do creative miracles in my own experience but I would like to illustrate the principle of the gift of miracles in three testimonies given by Henry Wright. I have used these testimonies because there is a meaningful lesson in each story:
“We had a case a year ago, right here in Georgia in an open church service, where God used me to grow a 14 year old girl’s arm 5 inches. She injured it in a fall from a tree onto a concrete slab when she was 9 years old. She broke her arm in 7 different places and had severe internal injuries. Her growth plates in the bones were so damaged that her arm did not grow for five years from age 9 to 14. Operating in the gift of miracles, I spoke into her damaged bones in her arm that had been destroyed by the injury and in the Name of Jesus I commanded it to grow and God did it. We watched for two minutes and before our eyes God formed every bit of that arm, including fatty tissue. That one arm was just like the other one. We were speaking things into existence, calling things that are not, as though they were, in His Name.”
Here is another story: Henry Wright taught in a conference in Pine Town, Durban, South Africa. There was a man who attended who was in his sixties. When he was nine, his father asked him to do something but he misunderstood the instruction. He didn’t do it just the way his
father had asked him to and in a fit of rage his father hit him on the side of the head with a piece of steel. He hit him so hard he knocked him through a window of a second story building and he would have died if he hadn’t fallen into a tree which broke his fall. When his father hit him, it shattered his entire ear and destroyed his ear drum. He had not been able to hear since that trauma at age nine and he was in his sixties. During the conference Henry Wright taught the principle of separation which I shared with you earlier in this chapter. He explained that what made people act that way wasn’t even them. When this man with the deaf ear realised that the anger and rage was not his father but sin or a being of rage and anger that had manifested through his father that did this damage, his heart opened to forgiveness. Now God will hold his father responsible for participating with sin and allowing the rage and anger to manifest through him. However, through understanding the principle of separation, the man was able to separate his father from his sin, and although he continued to hate the sin, he now had compassion for his father.
One of the biggest fallacies in the Church today is that we are asking God to do it all. God has given you authority
Later on in the conference Henry Wright lead the congregation in a prayer of repentance for bitterness and unforgiveness towards other people. This man began to repent to God for hating his father and for allowing hatred to manifest through him. Then in corporate ministry Henry Wright spoke a creative miracle to anybody that had deafness – he didn’t lay hands on the man or touch him. He simply said, “In the Name of Jesus Christ I speak into that ear drum that was busted and deformed by the accident, injury, trauma and the horror, dread and anger. I command that ear drum to be formed, calling those things that are not as though they were in the gift of miracles….” All of a sudden the man interrupted Henry and said, “Pastor, I can hear! This ear has opened up – I can hear every word out of it!” And that day God restored the damage done by his father. Man and science cannot do this! and you need to use it!
So can we speak a new liver into existence when the old one is cirrhotic and destroyed by the hepatitis C virus? Can we speak a new pancreas into existence because the old one was destroyed by diabetes? Can we speak a new area of the brain into existence because it was destroyed by a stroke? Can we speak new nerves into existence because the old ones were destroyed by autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis? Can we speak a new heart into existence in the Name of Jesus because the old one was destroyed by a heart attack? Yes we can. The reason it is not happening is because we are not doing it. One of the biggest fallacies in the Church today is that we are asking God to do it all. God has given you authority and you
need to use it! The Bible says that those who believe shall do in His Name (Mark 16 v 17 – 18). But we often
hear people pray, “Lord please do this for me, please do that…” You do it in Jesus Name! You speak to that damaged part of the body and command it to become whole in Jesus Name!
Let’s have a look at one more story: Henry Wright held a 3 day conference in White River in South Africa. In his conferences he asks the members of the audience to write down what diseases they have and put it in a box. His wife then makes a list of the diseases and at the end of the conference he explains what the spiritual roots behind those specific diseases are and ministers to the people who need it. Just as he was going into the ministry time, he heard the word “scoliosis” very strongly in his heart. When he asked his wife how many cases of scoliosis were on the list, there was not one. So he asked the audience, “Who here has scoliosis and didn’t turn it in?” The lady who had it didn’t hear him say that because she was not
paying attention. Henry Wright then said again, “Excuse me, why is God putting the word ‘scoliosis’ in my heart? Who here has a short leg?” Then she heard him and put up her hand. Henry asked her, “Why did you not turn it in?” She said, “Well, I’m 60 years old, I’ve had this problem all my life and I’m just used to it.” There are many people like that who have had an illness for so long that they have just accepted it as part of them…and that should not be!
The curve in this lady’s spine was so bad that when she brought dresses she had to have the hem cut so that the dress would hang level on her body. Henry Wright invited her up to the stage so he could minister to her. This lady didn’t think that she would be healed – she had already resigned herself to co-habitation with the enemy. But God decided to interfere with her. He wanted to show her some love.
Henry Wright asked the audience, “How many of you have never seen a miracle of healing in your life?” 90% of the audience raised their hands. So Henry invited them to form a circle around him to watch. Scoliosis is caused by an evil spirit that comes through personal or inherited strife and conflict – this is explained further on page 478.
In the Name of Jesus, Henry cast out the spirit of scoliosis and he commanded her spine to straighten. He was holding her ankles while she sat on a chair as a measure to see how curved the spine was. Slowly over 2 minutes you could see Henry’s knuckles coming closer together as her spine straightened but then it stopped. He sensed that the spirit of doubt and unbelief had come. Do you know that unbelief and doubt can even take away the power of God?
So Henry commanded unbelief and doubt to go in the Name of Jesus and then her spine continued to straighten. Eventually his knuckles came in line and then Henry knew that she had been healed. The people in the audience were crying because they watched it happen. She got up and walked with no limp – her hips and her shoulders were now level and back in balance. That night in White River the great God that we serve straightened a woman’s spine for His glory. Later the woman came with her husband to Henry and said, “You know, I didn’t know that God loved me so much that He would heal me even though I didn’t believe.” Henry Wright said “Yes, but when God spoke to me and told me to address the issue of scoliosis, and it was you, I operated in one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which is the gift of faith…I took it over for
you and you caught up.”
Apart from illustrating how the gift of miracles is applied in practice, this story highlights an important principle and that is that you must mix faith with the Truth you are being taught. If you do that you are like Father Abraham – you are a friend of God. Father Abraham was called a friend of God, not because he was sinless but because He believed God (Isaiah 41 v 8; James 21 v 23).
In the story about the man whose ear was healed – when he realized that he had been serving the sin of bitterness and unforgiveness towards his father, he repented. If you have got some sin issues that you have been serving, be a man or woman after God’s own heart like David – repent and get it out of your life.
Is there any higher honor than to be known as a friend of God and a man after God’s own heart? I hope your heart is opening in hope and faith to the possibility that you can be healed.
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